Thursday, March 29, 2012

Rabindranath and Sarat Chandra

The 28th Foundation day of Santiniketan was celebrated on 7th Paus,1325 (22nd Dec, 1918). Sita Devi wrote;   "In the morning. Rabindranath inaugurated the ceremony by singing a song which was followed by 2/3 chorus songs sung by the students. The poet did the role of Acharya. "
The prayer song in the evening was very nice and the poet as an Acharya was looking bright as a flame of fire. Jaladhar Sen, the editor of "Bharatbarsha", in Magh 1325( Bangabda) issue published in Samayeeki a description of Paush Mela. He wrote in the description of evening prayer; " Sir Rabindranath Tagore was in meditation. . It is useless to say that his meditation and prayer was touching.the students of Brahmacharyasram to sing three songs of Rabindranath and added glamour and joy to the occasion  ". He then narrated the songs to make everybody understand. " He also added, " My companion the famous litterateur and Novelist Sreeman Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay ( this was the first occasion when we both saw each other in Santiniketan) having noticed everything said, 'everything I have seen  but where is the School.'  Rathindra Babu said showing some trees, " the school sat everyday under these trees." The visit of Sarat Chandra bears testimony of his first visit and he stayed in the guest house for the night before leaving for Calcutta.
Jaladhar Sen was a man of Kumarkhali village of Nadia district.( At present Bangladesh). This Kumarkhali Village was also within the jurisdiction of the estate of Tagore family and Jaladhar Sen was one of the tenants of Rabindranath. Jaladhar Babu could not pay his rent for some years. He had come to Rabindranath for remission of some amount of his rent. He fetched Sarat Chandra along with him. He asked Rabindranath for remission of some amount of his rent. But Rabindranath wrote off all his debt.